


The Cicadas' Song

by LT_Aldo_Raine



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Kiss, First Love, Friends to Lovers, Louisiana, M/M, Revelations, The South
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-30 17:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18320309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LT_Aldo_Raine/pseuds/LT_Aldo_Raine
Summary: On a back porch in rural Louisiana, Babe realizes that he's in love with Gene.OR: “Gene, there is this—this place inside of me—“ Babe held a hand to his chest, as if to denote the very spot within him where Gene belonged. “I feel like you’ve been workin’ ya way in here a little bit every day since the day we met."





	The Cicadas' Song

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on a few longer BoB fics, but I wanted to post something short and sweet in the meantime.   
> Enjoy. <3

Babe Heffron had never been to the South. Not until he met Gene Roe. Hell, before his trip to Louisiana, Babe had only ever left Philly twice: once for his grandma’s funeral in Allentown, once for a road trip to New York City with Bill and Joe Toye. Babe had been staying with Gene and his family in Bayou Chene for nearly a month the summer of their junior year of college when Babe realized that he was in love with Gene.

“Sonofabitch,” he’d murmured, fingers curled around a jar of sweet tea, watching fireflies play in the evening air on the back porch of the Roe family home. He blinked once, twice, a third time, before he looked at Gene.

The Cajun peered at him openly, the corners of his dark eyes wrinkled just so, the edges of his lips soft and unassuming. Babe knew that Gene knew. Knew that this thing between them—this incredible connection that they had formed instantly at freshman orientation, a relationship as profound as it was quickly formed—went far beyond the normal bounds of friendship.

There, with a gentle, Southern heat settled across his shoulders, weighing on his chest like a hand over his heart, Babe asked, “Are ya in love with me, Gene?”

If the question surprised him, the Cajun didn’t show it. He shifted his gaze to his family’s garden. The cicadas were singing their song of dusk, and Gene hummed along thoughtfully. “I s’pose so.”

Babe laughed, half-amused, half-crazy. He set his mason jar full of iced tea on the porch step beside him, bringing his knees to his chest, as he barked, “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means I don’t know yet.”

The redhead’s heart pounded along in his chest, matching the rhythm of the cicadas’ song. Babe’s eyes flickered back and forth in the darkness, tracking the scattered, whimsical movements of the lightning bugs in the dark. Babe felt his coming admission like a brick on his tongue.

“Well, I’m in love with you, so...”

So, what? So, there? So, what now? So, how do we do this, you and me? If you want there to be a you and me? Please say you do because you’re such a goddamn important part of my life. I genuinely don’t know what I would do without ya anymore, you take up so much room inside of me, and I don’t want that to change. Please don’t make me change who I am when I’m with you, please don’t make me lose this person I get to be when I’m with you, this other, better version of myself that’s more carefree and happy, but that’s also more compassionate and inspired, someone that loves the way ya laugh and your surprisingly snarky sense of humor and the way that ya care—God, Gene, you care so goddamn much about everyone and everything, and I love that about you! Fuck, I love everything about you!

I love, love, love you—! I am _in_ love with you.

The revelation was euphoric. With a jubilant laugh that bordered on hysteria, Babe released his elated confession to the world, and as he slowly descended from his high of highs, the redhead realized—the slight blush creeping prettily across the tops of Gene’s cheeks was some indication—that he had said all of his epiphanic thoughts aloud.

"I take up room inside of ya?” The Cajun’s question was almost a whisper, the dark-haired man’s eyes lost to the garden, to the night.

Babe swallowed his smile, the sincerity of the moment giving him strength. “Gene, there is this—this _place_ inside of me—“ He held a hand to his chest, as if to denote the very spot within him where Gene belonged. “I feel like you’ve been workin’ ya way in here a little bit every day since the day we met, and now I...God, Gene, you’re such a huge fuckin’ part of me that I didn’t even notice ya were there.”

Silence reigned in the darkness, save for the cicadas and the bullfrogs and the slightest buzz of firefly wings.

Babe struggled to breathe.

“Gene, please say somethin’.”

“Ya sure you’re gonna feel this way when we go back?” The fear in Gene’s voice was obvious, present. Philly felt a world and a half away from this quiet, cozy, hidden, Southern realm on the bayou. Their days back at university were like another lifetime. “The South has its charms. She can be a romantic place—"

“No, Gene, fuck that.” The sudden surety that Babe felt startled them both. “It ain’t the South, or the heat, or ya ma’s home cookin’.”

Babe slid across the porch step until his hip and leg pressed into Gene’s. Babe wanted to touch him, wanted to hold him and reassure him, but he also didn’t want to pressure him. So, the redhead trapped his hands between his knees and pleaded, “Gene, I swear to fuckin’ God, okay? I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before. Maybe—maybe ‘cause I ain’t eva left the Southside before. Maybe ‘cause comin’ here...I can, ya know, I can see it? I can see me and you livin’ in Philly, me doin’ my engineering thing, you savin’ lives and shit. But then we come here, and...I can see _this_ , too.”

It was as if Babe was realizing the truth of his feelings as he spoke them to Gene, speaking his emotions to reality. He could see it, their lives, their futures, intertwined, and the redhead locked his gaze with the Cajun’s as he admitted, a smile tugging at his lips. “I can see any future for me with you in it.”

A grin, small and silly and sweet, wiggled its way onto Gene’s lips, and the Cajun flushed a deep red, hanging his head as he laughed in disbelief. “That’s a lot to promise, Heffron. The future’s a mighty big thing.”

His heart wild in his chest, Babe repeated his earlier inquiry. “Are ya in love with me, Gene?”

With a playful twinkle in his eye, the Cajun echoed himself. “I s’pose so.”

Then, the dark-hair man leaned forward and kissed Babe once, twice, a third time, gently on the lips. All around them, the lightning bugs continued to fly and the cicadas continued to sing.

 


End file.
